Ahhh, my new blog! It’s ready! I’m so excited – props to Matt Perry for the lovely design and making it all happen.

There’s a crazy amount of things I’ve been dying to write about, but we were hacked twice so I’ve been patiently waiting until TADA! Matt came through, yeha!

The palm lined-drive of the Palm Event Center

One of my favorite wedding coordinators from the Palm Event Center just emailed me recently – she just got engaged! I’m really excited for her and can’t wait to (hopefully) be the one to capture the day. Now, even though she’s coordinating weddings every weekend, she too is a bit overwhelmed by this thing called “planning.” What do I do? When? Where do I start?

I sent her a little overview I like to give any new bride and groom who want a little help. So I thought I’d publish a bit of the email to see if YOU can get some help from it, too!

<<A few questions for you:
1. What are your three very very top priorities for your wedding? For me it was place (had to be in the redwoods and a place where my dogs could be in the ceremony), cake and photography. Why am I asking? Cuz it will help you lay the groundwork for your budget. Honestly!>>

When you identify what is most important to you and your spouse-to-be, then you know that’s where your focus should be. For me and Paul, it was ALL about the location. It had to be in the redwoods, and it had to allow dogs. Our very first thought was the grove at UCSC, where Shakespeare Santa Cruz performs, since that’s where Paul presented me with the ring (it’s not where he proposed, but that’s another story!) and it was exactly what we were looking for. But unfortunatly, UCSC had rented the space to SSC and now had no control over renting it and SSC said, “uh, nope.” Sigh.

a page from one of our Nestldown wedding albums

Our next most obvious place was Nestldown, an amazing, almost spiritual private estate in the Santa Cruz Mountains. WAY above our original budget, but we were willing to move as much as we could – going with a lesser expensive catering package, doing away with most of the florals if we had to, designing and assembling all the paper goods – just so we could be in that magical space. Alas, already taken for our date. Sigh, sigh.

We ended up in Sandborn Park, with special permission from Santa Clara County Parks to perform the ceremony on the same stage in the redwoods were Paul and our friends would perform every late summer in Shady Shakespeare (in case you’re wondering, yes, my hubby likes Shakespeare and is an actor/director when he’s not teaching high school English!). One of our first dates together we helped to spruce up and rebuild the stage so it was also very significant that we get married on that same stage.

Lucky for us, we saved enough (renting two spaces in a county park is rather inexpensive compared to traditional sites) to find and hire what I now know is one of the most important things of all…

THE PLANNER!

I WISH I had known just how invaluable a planner is before we even started on our quest. I WISH I had known that most planners even give you the initial consult for no charge so that they can get to know more about you and your vision of the wedding you want. I WISH I had known that having someone do all the legwork for me actually saved me precious energy, and even money, because I could then focus on other important things and on my work. But the magazines and bridal sites really don’t let you in on that secret cuz if they did, they’d be out of business!

So that’s my contribution for the day, 2010 couples. The very first thing you do is NOT read all the bridal magazines. The very first thing you do is identify your three most valuable things. Then, you find a wedding planner. How do you do that? Either ask friends who’ve gotten married, OR find a wedding professional whose site and reputation appeals to you and ask THEM. They’ll be happy to help, trust me. And don’t forget to do a little searching on their association website, too!

You can also find a partial list of my favorite planners in my blogroll. Remember, since I only just launched, I’m still adding all my faves so it might take a while to get everyone on there. They’re coming though!